Skol

by Alan Conrad

What does the future hold for shy people? Maybe not what you expect.Shy seventeen year old Simon has lived his whole life on a small space freighter with his father and brother. He has no reason to believe that he will ever be allowed to land on a planet, and he often wonders whether he will ever get to know a woman.But he unexpectedly gets to visit wild uninhabited Earth, where he attends a school that until then was only for rich aristocratic boys. He gets to walk alone through the mountains down to empty decaying New York City, where he meets the few robots who are its only remaining inhabitants, and he discovers that women, both human and non-human, will play a role in his fate that he never could have imagined.This view of shyness from the 23rd century presents it in a very different light than it is seen in today.

250 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 2015

Reviews

[Jane Blanchard]

Set in the 23rd century, SKOL by Alan Conrad is the story of a shy young man's passage into adulthood. Simon is on a space freighter with his father and brother, transporting goods to far-off planets. As a member of the Skolen race, they can withstand the loneliness of space travel and, therefore, take cargo long distances where others cannot go. Because of the travels, Simon has little contact with others. While stopped to resupply the ship, Simon is gifted a pet rat which becomes his companion.

When Simon goes to school on uninhabited Earth, he has difficulty interacting with others, especially the rich and entitled. As a result of an entanglement, he flees the school, follows the ancient Appalachian trail to New York City, but must return to the school to get off the planet. During his travels, he observes nature and the environment. I loved the descriptions that let me see earth's wanders in a refreshing childlike way.

Paralleling Simon's story is the history of how this future came to be, the controversy over intelligence, especially "artificial intelligence" (AI). and the human understanding of what is a sentient being. I enjoy books that make me think and see the world differently, and this one did just that. Can shyness be a genetic survival trait and can humans adjust to living with AI or will mankind's hubris interfere?

I highly recommend this book for those who enjoy a good story and plausible sci-fi that is not about warring intergalactic species but about the future of humankind on an individual basis.